Thorn covered roses still smell sweet
by Ame Deri-chan
Summary: Tenten loved Neji but now,he's Sakura's.Now that that Tenten's now in Akatsuki,what will happen?Will their lives change back to the days where love didn't hurt.When you're best friend wasn't a traitor...or was she a friend in the first place?
1. JUST A MATTER OF TIME FOR THORNS TO GROW

**Thorn covered roses still sweet**

**Chapter 1: JUST A MATTER OF TIME FOR THORNS TO GROW**

_It really was just a simple matter of timing. The brunette hesitant, thinking she had all the time in the world. The pinkette scared but she was lonely. It was nothing but a simple matter of time._

Tenten had more than an infinite number of choices while Sakura had close to none, zero, nada, and nil. Yet when courage overcame fear, Tenten felt her heart shatter in the same amount of chances she _once_ had. More than an infinite.

In the end, Neji will never know Tenten's secret.

In the end, Neji will always be a blind fool who will never know that Heaven's love was always with him.

Never.

It all happened because she let 'time' go by. Some may call it 'fate' but in the end, lost 'time' would always remain lost. As said, this was all just a simple matter of time or fate. In the end, Tenten have to go on and live without him.

Was it time's fault that Sakura was lonely and fell in love with Neji? Was it also Fate's fault that Neji also loved her back and Tenten was…?

Tenten was nothing more than a teammate, comrade, a sparring partner, perhaps a confidant and a friend but nothing more. How could one has all seeing eyes and be blind at the same time?

It was just a simple matter of Fate. Sakura wanted advice on confessing so who better to ask than Neji's friends. Everyone knows how Neji hated his family and Lee and Gai-sensei were freaks of nature. So who else than Tenten?

She made it subtle. She didn't bluntly ask her but when the topic of Neji came, Tenten was blabbering facts about him that Sakura kept in her mind. The weapon mistress was happy to be able to share the things she loved about Neji without being teased for her almost fan girl-like obsession. She found it weird but she thought nothing could ever go wrong.

Well, she should have known that Fate never was nice to people of her profession.

Fate was horrid to her. It played its cards _too_ well. Fate brought her early for training to spot a certain pink-haired kunoichi and Neji and the _entire thing_. The entire confession.

Even the part where Neji admits his own feelings to Sakura. To the part where Neji blushes, to the _grin_ and to the _kiss_, everything! Tenten could never make him do that.

Tenten ran and ran to the safety of her home but Fate would not let her cry. Tears have begun to form yet have not fallen when she arrived at her modest home but before it could so much touch her cheeks, a messenger hawk flew in a window she might have forgotten to close. It had a scroll tied to its leg bearing the sign of the Hokage. A High class mission

The brunette willed her body to look presentable and not on the verge of a breakdown. She jumped- flickered was a better word- to the Hokage's office. It does not matter if the mission was suicidal or simply tiring. Anything to keep her mind away from Sakura and Neji was welcomed.

She entered Tsunade's office, presentable and sake free-a good sign or a bad one? Fate began to be nicer, a solo mission far away but it was a pity that Fate was definitely still trying to play with her.

An infiltration mission. Infiltrate Akatsuki and become one of its members. The kage level ninjas were picky- their test was simple yet hard. People would fight a seemingly endless number of fights and at the end when only one was at its weakest after killing everyone else, they would have to fight one of the members. If one was incompetent, Akatsuki would brainwash them for suicide mission and traitors hunted and tortured like they were never ever comrades.

The Godaime looked at Tenten's eyes. The bottomless pit that was once brimming with emotions deeply concerned the blond woman. Yet, she began to explain something that kept nagging her usually sake induced mind. Every month, Tenten would have to endanger herself by sending reports on a certain day and not only that, if Tenten passed the Akatsuki's test, she would most likely be branded as a missing ninja. The Hokage could not stop everyone in the village because it would only serve to harm her more. Lastly, the mission would only end at either her or Akatsuki's graves.

"Do you understand, Tenten? Can you finish this and return? You could say no" _so please say no_ was left unsaid but Tenten's did not waver from the blonde's own. With a nod of her head it was officially, Tenten would be sent in this mission.

As Tenten began to walk out, with her back facing the Hokage, she whispered,' do not worry, milady. I'll come back if it is in the will of the fates" She turned while her eyes was shut close, giving her a rather serene look. Suddenly, she opened her eyes but inside of revealing warm hazel eyes, her eyes were slits like snakes and her pupils a shade of purple and her irises white. The La Rose, her hidden weapon, her hidden secret.

"Very well, Tenten, very well" the woman whispered as the ANBU left her office.


	2. important an

IMPORTANT!

TENTEN IS NO LONGER TSUNADES CHILD AND IM SORRY FOR DELETING THE ORIGINAL CHAPPIE 2.

Im very sorry guys for my absence n I hope u still like the story but I was really busy that I was lazy on the days I wasn't busy. Also I lost my story plotline n yes I made a new one( which I lost again) but its engrave more into my mind. Anyway, ill try to write again but its kinda hard transferring stuff on paper to com so sorry again. Next issue is if u peeps want a happy or sad ending….

SO SORRY AGAIN FOR NOT UPDATING


	3. TWO: A ROSE IS COVERED WITH THORNS

**CHAPTER TWO: A ROSE IS COVERED WITH THORNS**

_**So sorry for the last couple of months… I was busy with school but theres hardly no work now. Also sorry for the bottom part, this was actually a rewrite of chapter two that I had posted but because I was unhappy with it, I removed it from the site. I kinda lost the writing style…side effects for failing English and lit. if u didn't catch it in my AN, I changed the last part of chappie 1 so that tenten is no longer tsunades grandchild and im sorry if u think that this fic is too fast, im very sorry but my time managing n story is undeveloped…I have the start n the end with something in the middle. Also can u review n tell me if u want a happy or sad ending**_

Purple eyes scanned the forest, its serene look disturbed by the familiar sounds of battle. Two months of tracking a group that doesn't want to be found has left the brown haired kunoichi at the outskirts of the land of wind where she stands at a random branch of a random tree, straining to find the source of the noise. She decides to turn left and starts hopping across trees at the speed her old team boasted and still boasts of.

True to its name, the land of wind is windy but the brown haired kunoichi had invested long ago in clothes that leave the body warm in whatever climate. Her hair, out of its twin buns, is dancing with the wind, loose and tangled with only a hair band and a blue rose to keep it at place. Her face had no trace of makeup except for a blood red lipstick that makes her purple eyes pop. She wears a red cloak to her knees and black knee high boots and elbow high gloves. She is adequately warm.

Tenten roams around the evergreen forest and minutes past till she locates the source of the noise. It was from a large clearing where a lot of people were fighting or dying.

She notes that it was a last man standing type of battle as she makes herself known. Upon closer inspection, she notices that most of the men are rouges or ninjas in the bingo book. She also notices numerous white clones resembling the white half of Zetsu, an Akatsuki member.

She grins excitedly as she calculates the amount of bounty reward she will get if she presents the heads of various rouge Nin. Slowly but surely, her hand reaches out to the twin scrolls behind her back as her eyes wander round the unsuspecting ninjas. "Twin rising dragons!" she yells. She bites her thumb and swiftly applied blood to the various seals on her scrolls while twisting in the air. With her free hand and legendary one hundred percent accuracy, she takes the various weapons that appear and slaughters them all. A few rouge ninjas and clones survive her massacre but a quick gaze with her purple eyes on them and a few deadly kunai, only one clone is left.

She softly lands on the grounds and seals all but two Katanas in her scrolls. One blood red and the other deadly black. She charges to the lone clone in the stained battlefield. The last clone vanishes to smoke. Tenten knows she had held her Katanas to her enemy's chest but she knows it had barely grazed its skin- or whatever it was that covered its chest. This baffles the kunoichi for only the slightest of moments before she scans her surrounding. A moment of hesitation in battle was a moment too close to death.

Zetsu appears at her back, ready with a poisonous blade. She stops it in time with her own black one. Zetsu now had both his black and white side, telling Tenten she must now be careful for this was no clone.

Zetsu jumps in the air, his black hand forming a series of seals Tenten has never seen before. She knows something bad would happen and quickly forces her chakra to the eyes. They turn more black than purple.

Time for the La Rose.

One brief glance. She only one needs brief moment of eye contact.

THERE!

Zetsu was ready to perform to his jutsu and was simply tempted to give Tenten a smug look when he met the kunoichi's eyes. Suddenly, he was in deep pain. Imaginary razor sharp knives cut deep into his flesh, causing many wounds and cuts. Meanwhile, out of his head, swirls of petal that appeared out of nowhere surrounds the Akatsuki nin as his enemy laughs a cruel laugh, something that may have out of her character. However, her gaze falls on an ordinary, common and typical branch of a tree at 3 o'clock.

Her blood red lips part. "Do I pass the test, Itachi-nee?"

**Itachi pov (well kind of…)**

Itachi had seen beauty before but even he couldn't tell if the blue rose on her hair that fall in soft curls or the woman herself was more stunning. The woman was also graceful and it was evident in the way she had passed the exams.

His little rose had grown up quite magnificently.

He drops his genjutsu, appearing clearly before Tenten. It was of no use anyway, she could see him despite her curse. He gives her a stiff nod, acknowledging her presence the first time in many a year. He glances in Zetsu's direction and give her a look. She pouts but lets Zetsu down from his misery. The normal grass around him immediately absorbs him away but not before muttering something along the lines of scary.

'Why?' Itachi finally murmurs but Tenten evidently hears it.

"You know why." she replies briefly, her eyes, however, do not meet his and he immediately knows it was a lie.

'Why?' he repeats and her eyes snapped in his direction as storms and fire darken her eyes. So much hatred, her eyes looked like what they used to look like long, long ago.

Her lips curl into a snarl and her hand subconsciously goes closer to a hidden weapon. Don't ask, she snaps and Itachi just nods his head emotionlessly. He shall respect her wish for that was all he could do for her. Instead, his mind wanders back into Akatsuki related manners.

He did not want his little rose to join the team but it was an in-or-get-killed situation. Also, Tenten was the only survivor in the last five years and it would look suspicious if he removes her or anything like that. There was no decision made by him because there's only one way for his rose to survive.

He gives her a blank look and orders 'come". She does not shows it but she is glad to follow his orders once more.


End file.
